My first-ever spam on my new address!

Today marks the first day I’ve ever received spam to my “matthew” address at barnson.org! I’ve received it to numerous other addresses on the barnson.org domain, but for a weblog in operation for over a year, with an easily-guessable and abundantly available address in various places on my site, well, this tells me that if you’re cautious about where your email address goes aside from your personal domain, you can prevent a lot of spam that way. Obviously not a cure-all, though, and since I’m on one person’s list now, I expect to soon be on a ton.

In the interest of science, here’s the Postfix transaction log (with my email address defanged, because I’d rather my email address not be too-easily harvested. But I’ve left theirs intact, you know…)

Today marks the first day I’ve ever received spam to my “matthew” address at barnson.org! I’ve received it to numerous other addresses on the barnson.org domain, but for a weblog in operation for over a year, with an easily-guessable and abundantly available address in various places on my site, well, this tells me that if you’re cautious about where your email address goes aside from your personal domain, you can prevent a lot of spam that way. Obviously not a cure-all, though, and since I’m on one person’s list now, I expect to soon be on a ton.

In the interest of science, here’s the Postfix transaction log (with my email address defanged, because I’d rather my email address not be too-easily harvested. But I’ve left theirs intact, you know…)

 Oct 7 22:03:59 ross postfix/smtpd[9865]: connect from unknown[211.154.171.120] Oct 7 22:04:12 ross postfix/smtpd[9865]: 34FA03880F: client=unknown[211.154.171.120] Oct 7 22:04:23 ross postfix/cleanup[9885]: 34FA03880F: message-id=<> Oct 7 22:04:23 ross postfix/qmgr[63904]: 34FA03880F: from=, size=6245, nrcpt=1 (queue active) Oct 7 22:04:24 ross postfix/pipe[9889]: 34FA03880F: to=, relay=cyrus, delay=12, status=sent (mail.barnson.org) Oct 7 22:04:24 ross postfix/smtpd[9865]: disconnect from unknown[211.154.171.120]

Here’s the message — headers and all. I’ve defanged all their image bugs and other assorted crap that’s supposed to track the success of their campaign. It was also pretty hideous HTML… I stripped it out with links. This will also probably be the last time I ever feature spam prominently on my web site, but I just want to preserve this unique moment before I go ape on them in my journal.

root@ross ttyp2 07:24:25 Wed Oct 08 /var/spool/imap/user/matthew/
$ lynx -dump -force-html -nolist 12611.
Return-Path: <return@submitstar.com>
Received: from ross.barnson.org ([unix socket])
by ross.barnson.org (Cyrus v2.1.12) with LMTP; Tue, 07 Oct 2003 22:04:24
-0600
X-Sieve: CMU Sieve 2.2
Received: from localhost.localdomain (unknown [211.154.171.120])
by mail.barnson.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 34FA03880F
for <matthew at barnson dot org>; Tue, 7 Oct 2003 22:04:12 -0600 (MDT)
Received: from ()
by (8.12.8/8.12.5) with SMTP id h9846KNV017586
for <matthew at barnson dot org>; Wed, 8 Oct 2003 12:06:26 +0800
Message-Id: <>
From: Irene Parker <return@submitstar.com>
To: “matthew at barnson dot org” <matthew at barnson dot org>
Subject: www.barnson.org
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2003 12:00:33 +0800
X-Mailer: CSMTPConnection v2.17
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary=”b551ee61-35fd-4489-8f0b-c86930e3c9c2″
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Reply-To: Irene Parker <Irene_parker@submitstar.com>

This is a multi-part message in MIME format
–b551ee61-35fd-4489-8f0b-c86930e3c9c2
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
<!– saved from url=3D(0022)http://internet.e-mail –>

Hi,

I visited http://www.barnson.org, and noticed that you’re not listed on some search engines! I = would like to introduce to you an affordable service where we can help = enhance your online presence globally.

Search engine submission is an integral part of the success of = your web site. Building a web presence means more than just = having the right keywords. We offer a star solution that will produce = guaranteed results. Our unique search engine positioning technology helps = submit your website to over 300,000 search engines and directories = every month. It takes only minutes to sign up for our service. We’ll do the = rest! You’ll be surprised how simple it is to now reach out to an = international market and increase the visibility of your website.

Do let me know how I may assist you better with = submitstar.com!

Best Regards,
Irene Parker

Sales and Marketing
E-mail: Irene_Parker@submitstar.com
http://www.submitstar.com

Not interested in our www.SubmitStar.com service? To be taken off our mailing list, please follow the = instructions here. [lengthy, user-identifying URL here — MPB]

–b551ee61-35fd-4489-8f0b-c86930e3c9c2–

My response was “Yeah, you can help me. Stop spamming, you jerk!”. However, I did not click “send” — because unsubscribing or replying to these types of things is not only a waste of time, but a confirmation to them that their list has a known-good email address.

The only way this mail was unique was that it was the first to hit my “real” address — the one I use for friends, family, and correspondents from this web site. And now, this email is just another piece of junk for the Bayesian filter on my mail reader. A few more like this, and they’ll be automatically round-filed.